Patients at risk from inadequately trained doctors

See Daily Express article.

Unethical financial conflicts of interest dominated some panels of medics

Unethical financial conflicts of interest dominated some panels of medics who wrote guidelines on cardiovascular health in recent years. See NYTimes article.

Is your beer belly really a SALT belly?

So you drink quite a bit of beer and you've also got a fat gut and you guess that it's a 'beer belly'? You may well be right. - But here is some information you may not know about, that I've cut and pasted from this webpage:

Sodium retention can lead to a further problem called ascites, an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the abdomen, which partly accounts for the protruding abdomen of steroid victims. The good news is that when salt/sodium intake is lowered, the ascites will be reduced along with the fluid retention in the blood vessels. Cutting down on alcohol also reduces the fluid in the abdomen.

You may well conclude from that, and I would agree with you if you did so conclude, that it is really more the fault of sodium retention/salt sensitivity/fluid retention that you are the possessor of that 'beer belly', even though you are probably not a steroid victim. - Whether you cut down on salt or cut down on alcohol, cutting down on either will reduce that fat abdomen, and I suspect that intentionally cutting down on salt will have a more noticeable effect than intentionally cutting down on alcohol, because when you reduce salt intake, one of the benefits is that your thirst is reduced, and so without much effort you may find yourself drinking less beer. - Two birds with one stone! - Well done!

Lose weight by eating less salt! -Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Symptoms of salt sensitivity include:

Symptoms of salt sensitivity include high blood pressure, being overweight/obese, red face, especially after a salty meal, excessive thirst after a salty meal, distended veins, distended abdomen, swollen, aching feet, breathing problems, tiredness, feeling bloated, and many more.

The simple, safe, natural, drug-free way to reduce all of these symptoms is to cut down on salt/sodium and salty food. The lower you can get your intake of added salt the better for your health and comfort. In the main this means avoiding processed, readymade meals as these are usually highly salted. You need to buy fresh food and cook it yourself without adding salt or at any rate adding very little salt. You can find lots of information about foods with high and low salt/sodium content on this webpage, along with further suggestions as to how to lower your salt intake. Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection.

Study links chemicals in saucepans to early menopause

"A study of 26,000 U.S. women aged between 42 and 64 years old found that those with the highest levels of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) in their bodies experienced menopause earlier than women with low levels, researchers from West Virginia University said Wednesday.

PFCs are man-made chemicals found in a variety of household products, including non-stick cookware sold by DuPont, the manufacturer of Teflon. The company has agreed to phase out PFCs in its products by 2015."
Read FoxNews report.

Drug-pushing: irresponsible suggestion that tamoxifen and raloxifene be prescribed to prevent breast cancer

BBC News reports "an international panel of cancer experts" recommending that women at high risk of developing breast cancer should be prescribed tamoxifen and raloxifene, despite the risk of serious adverse side-effects from such drugs. 'Cancer experts' who recommend toxic cancer drugs for people who do not have cancer would, I guess, be 'experts' who have cosy relationships with the drug manufacturers and that their foolish recommendation stems from conflict of interest. I say that because I feel that anyone truly concerned about women at high risk of breast cancer would be seeking to protect them from running any unnecessary risks from taking toxic drugs, and would be advising them to safeguard their health by eating good, natural food free of additives, high in nutrition, low in salt/sodium and low in sugar - something like a paleo diet. There is a well-founded opinion that cancers feed on sugar, so it would clearly be best to avoid sugar as far as possible. (Note : it is often the taking of prescribed drugs that predisposes some women to weight gain and breast disease in the first place, i.e. prescribed steroids and HRT, tricyclic antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and many more.)

Vitamin D conference in London on April 7th

Details of the Vitamin D conference are here: Vit D conference 7th April pdf - It looks to have a fantastic line-up of speakers. I understand that DVDs of the event are to be made available about a month after the actual event.

Vitamin D is my favourite vitamin...(o:

Medical Sexism in the Midlands

When I was serving as an elected Vice-President of the College of Health, there were three serious wrongs that I was campaigning about: the cruel uselessness of the NHS Complaints Procedures, the need for a rational approach to the treatment of pain, and the sex prejudice of doctors that led to failure to investigate and treat women's physical problems. As a result, I received post from people damaged by the system. Most of this post was about the great suffering caused to women by the sex prejudice of doctors.

This is the letter I received from a woman in the Midlands:

Dear Margaret Wilde

Following the item by Peter Pallot in the Daily Telegraph I write to support your view that women, in particular, are too often dismissed as neurotic by their doctors, and no real attempt is made to find the real nature of their illness.

As a member of the Endometriosis Society - recently appointed a National Trustee - I know of many sufferers, including myself, who have for years been treated as neurotic before emergency admission to hospital has revealed the real cause of the symptoms.

Endometriosis is a very debilitating disease and the symptoms can be very vague. Many sufferers say that only when they pluck up the courage to say that intercourse is very painful that doctors do something about their problems. It is felt that when a man's pleasure is affected 'that can't be allowed!'

My own case with Endometriosis began with painful periods at the age of fifteen. I was treated with tranquillisers, over a number of years. I was told 'to pull myself together', by all the doctors in my practice. I did to some extent accept that what they said about me must be correct. (Now this makes me angry to think about it.) Just three weeks before emergency surgery in July 1971 - age 27 years - I was threatened with admission to Psychiatric Hospital if 'I didn't pull myself together'. On the day of my admission to hospital my GP said I had a pulled stomach muscle! Later that night my left ovary was removed in 'a near gangrenous state' and half of my right ovary. The surgeon, a lady, was very angry about my treatment, as I had the most advanced case of endometriosis she had ever seen.

In 1978 I began suffering again and had the galling experience of repeated visits to the doctors who still treated me as neurotic. In the spring of '79, almost 12 months later, a laparoscopy was done (to shut me up) and I was found to have Chronic Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, Multiple Adhesions and Chronic Infection. No wonder I had felt so ill!

Almost 5 years ago I began an association with the Endometriosis Society which is a self help support group. My aims were to try and do something to prevent other women going through my horrendous experiences. The most recent effort with this aim in mind has been the production of the booklet 'Endometriosis' for General Practitioners. At the moment its distribution has been limited to Coventry, Warwickshire, two London boroughs, Lincoln and Humberside, although when local groups raise the funds all General Practitioners throughout the country will receive one. Unfortunately Coventry and Warwickshire doctors have not returned the feedback sheets (only 2 out of 600) - but in the other areas the reception has been marvellous.

Thank you for doing this work on behalf of women.

Any further help you require, please contact me.

I have enclosed a copy of the booklet for you.

Kind Regards

Kay Adcocks
(Kay gave her permission for her name to be included here.)
..............................................................................................
You can read HERE about some of my own experience of terrible suffering and permanent harm done by the sex prejudice of health professionals.

Medical Sexism in the South West

When I was serving as an elected Vice-President of the College of Health, there were three serious wrongs that I was campaigning about: the cruel uselessness of the NHS Complaints Procedures, the need for a rational approach to the treatment of pain, and the sex prejudice of doctors that led to failure to investigate and treat women's physical problems. As a result, I received post from people damaged by the system. Most of this post was about the great suffering caused to women by the sex prejudice of doctors.

This is the letter I received from a suffering woman in the South West:

Dear Margaret Wilde

An article in the Daily Telegraph alerted me to your work concerning the treatment sick women receive at the doctor's surgery. I hope my story will interest you and add grist to your mill. At least that way something positive will have been salvaged from an otherwise horribly negative experience.

In short, I can vouch that sick women truly do get treated as neurotics when they actually have some real and serious condition. The doctor's surgery is a place where women can meet indifference, complacency, and downright negligence all cowering under the prejudice that the greater part of a woman's problems is simply that she is a woman and therefore must be neurotic and nowhere near as ill as she claims to be. I am allowed to use as strong words as I please because I have nearly died not once but twice and am still ill and am still battling against the old black magic called the NHS.

My story is long and complicated so I shall try to be as concise as possible. The original problem that I suffered from was not complicated at all. At 22 years old with a small baby I was suddenly overtaken with terrific pain in my back. The attack lasted for a few hours. I was alone, no telephone, no neighbours, and had to wait till my husband returned before I could see the doctor. With very little ado he diagnosed that I had an infection in my water that travelled to my kidneys, and prescribed antibiotics. Over the next six years and through repeated attacks of terrible pain he stuck to that diagnosis and kept writing out the prescriptions for antibiotics, never once bothering to confirm or deny his critical diagnosis by any test or examination or referral to another doctor. My condition of course grew worse but that didn't seem to bother him. Time and time again I was offered Septrim and Flagyl for my 'infection' and nothing else. Even at the point when I lay dying in my bed for five days with pain so bad that one doctor administered shots of morphine to me, when he, my doctor, managed to visit me, all he offered was a cheery smile and a prescription for Septrim and Flagyl and hurriedly left. The next day, though called out first thing in the morning, he breezed in at four in the afternoon. Five days I lay prostrate in my bed, the culmination of a long period of illness, and he did not consider me to be seriously ill. Perhaps he thought that young women took to their beds as a matter of course.

I was finally admitted to hospital where it was discovered that I had an Ovarian cyst that had strangulated my ovary rendering it gangrenous and causing peritonitis. The explanation for his tardy treatment was really quiite simple. He thought I was neurotic; he made me feel I was neurotic. At one stage he implied that I was wasting his time by continually visiting his surgery. He had many patients to look after and most of them were far sicker than U was. Those were his words. When my husband saw him about a sore throat he said, "It's amazing how someone like you never comes to see me unless they are really bad, when other people are here all the time over every little thing." My husband took his inference that the other people referred to meant me. A man with a sore throat is automatically assumed to be truly suffering while a woman with a persistent pain is a persistent nuisance. That he never took my suffering seriously is confirmed by the fact that he never bothered to investigate the series of infections that I was supposed to be suffering from.

The operation to remove my ovary saved my life. But it left me with a shattered digestion and a series of terrifying abdominal spasms. Down to my new doctor's again. That went on for another four years. Was it taken seriously? Was it heck. Though I repeatedly maintained that it was caused by the operation, I was told that it was my gall bladder, that I was allergic to wheat, that it was simply bellyache caused by adhesions and it was not at all serious. Why was my suffering never taken seriously? Why? Why? Why? In August last year I suffered a spasm to end all spasms. My bowel was dangerously involved with an adhesion and finally won by twisting itself around the adhesion and strangulating itself. There is no way to describe the pain of that.

Another emergency operation. Gangrene again. Lost six inches of bowel. Recovery from that operation was marred by abscesses. When they eventually disappeared I realised that I was not going to recover normally. I am in pain all the time. But what has enraged me beyond words is that I still meet with the same old cavalier attitude from doctors. My God, what does a woman have to suffer from before she is treated with the same respect as a man? If I suffered from a heart complaint I'm sure I would be taken seriously. After all it kills men. But death by adhesions though agonising is a lesser form of death. After a lot of pushing I'm finally going for a barium meal X-ray. But how I have had to push for that! I find writing this letter hard as I am still very weak and distressed. I have had two serious conditions that have been ignored by doctors till they nearly killed me. I am left to pick up the pieces of my shattered life in pain and virtually told that there's not much can be done for me. I could not have received worse treatment if I tried. A witch doctor in Africa would at least have cared for my spirit, and a money-grabbing doctor in America may not have respected my sex but he would have respected my money. I would rather be faced with the prospect of a large bill than a life of pain. But the NHS cares for neither God nor Mammon, so the likes of me get lost along the way. I am suing everybody that I can but that is no consolation either for my pain or the lost years. Most of all I wanted the world to know what can happen to a young woman who develops a simple complaint like an ovarian cyst and what the system can do to her.

Then I came across your article in the paper and suddenly felt that I was not alone. On behalf of women like me I want you to scream from the rooftops that lives are being shattered by this prejudice. My list of complaints against the NHS is endless. But the prevailing factor has been that of prejudice, the old prejudice that most of my trouble lies in the fact that i cannot cope either with my pain or my life. The fact that my distress may be genuine is the last one to be considered.

I hope you find my story appalling. I hope it will help you in some way. Here in Cornwall I shall try to do all I can to expose the complacent attitude towards women. Please write to me if I can be of further help to you. You have my best wishes.

Yours
..............................................................................................
You can read HERE about some of my own experience of terrible suffering and permanent harm done by the sex prejudice of health professionals.

Look at the salt content! - That 'healthy' bowl of soup may be more salt-laden than a load of crisps!

Look at the salt content! -This Daily Mail article has given a helpful reminder this week about salt levels in a selection of supermarket convenience foods. High salt content is especially unhealthy for children. Remember; if it's high in salt it is NOT a healthy choice.

Health concerns with regard to radiation-based diagnostics

Health concerns with regard to radiation-based diagnostics, and how to minimize radiation exposure.
Read information provided by Dr Rath Foundation.

GM soy is being sneaked into Britain's Food Imports

"Millions of Britons are unwittingly eating food made using genetically modified soy, a survey of the leading grocery brands has disclosed. Household name brands like Cadbury Dairy Milk and Bird’s Eye use milk, eggs and meat made from animals that could have been fed GM soy, the research shows."
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

Medical Sexism in the North East

When I was serving as an elected Vice-President of the College of Health, there were three serious wrongs that I was campaigning about: the cruel uselessness of the NHS Complaints Procedures, the need for a rational approach to the treatment of pain, and the sex prejudice of doctors that led to failure to investigate and treat women's physical problems. As a result, I received post from people damaged by the system. Most of this post was about the great suffering caused to women by the sex prejudice of doctors.

This is the letter I received from a suffering woman in the North East:

Dear Margaret

I'm so glad that at last someone is going to do something about women's ailments being called PSYCHOLOGICAL. I myself have had this label put on me for the last twenty one years. For five years a lot of years ago I was told that the bleeding and terrible pain I was getting was all in my mind and given all drugs for nerves. At last someone listened to me. One examination revealed I needed a hysterectomy. I was told afterwards my womb was like a fishing net. It was full of holes. The disease I had was ENDOMETRIOSIS. It had eaten its way into my stomach. About a year later I had terrible pains. I was told nerves - more nerve tablets. I was like a zombie with them. My memory is still terrible. I blame all the drugs I was given over the years to shut me up. Anyway I was rushed into Hospital. I had adhesions. Then it happened again. I was rushed into Hospital. I was told I had mass adhesions Bowel Bladder and Intestines, which I still suffer with. Yet when they flare up I'm told it's wind. I get blockage of Bowel and Bladder. One doctor years ago had the nerve to say to my mother-in-law I was too tense to pass water. I was in Hospital next day with stoppage of Bladder. I've been on water tablets years. I've been in Hospital more times than enough with blockages and stoppage yet I still have that label on me. Four years ago I was getting severe pains neck and back. I was told for six months it was nerves. Seen a consultant Private. He showed me X-rays. I had severe spondylosis plus two discs out in my neck and three out in my spine. Even though I have a very good doctor now I feel when I go he takes notice of my Records which have that label all through them. There is much more I could tell you but I soon weary. But the medical profession has robbed me of the best years of my life. My four sons have never had a healthy mother. I'm divorced. If I'd been healthy this might never have happened. Spelling which was my best subject has gone, along with my memory. I'd love to get my Medical Records with some experts and correct all the times when I was really ill so I could lose that label. I still feel I'm treated like a Hypochondriac.I now have an abdomen with four horrible scars and a lot of pain. I can't do Housework or anything much. All I want to do is feel strong enough to look after my sons, do housework and go back to work in a shop, which I loved. There have been times I could have ended it all. Only my Faith in Jesus Christ kept me going and the strength he sent me to bear the pain. One night I was in agony with my back pains and the doctor came in and said, "Get out of bed; the pain's all in your mind." He sent me to three psychiatrists who said there was nothing wrong with my nerves at all and told me to throw the tablets out as I did not need them. The next time my back went he said I wanted to be ill but it was so deep-rooted I did not realise it. He wanted me to be put under hypnosis to prove this. I changed my doctor. I wish now I had to prove him wrong. I'm now 44 years old. 21 years of my life have been spoilt. Thanks be to God I do have some good days but I'm never without pain altogether. I get mobility money and severe disablement but money does not make up for 21 years of life.

God bless you in your work. I wish I could help you.

Please excuse writing. I'm tired. Thank you.

Forgot to tell you when I had my third son I could not look after him for 8 weeks. I was delirious for days and in bed for weeks. Was told it was a virus. I've never been fit since. This was 22 years ago. I was strong as a horse before that. Worked full-time. I'm sure something was left in me that caused my later problems.
..............................................................................................
You can read HERE about some of my own experience of terrible suffering and permanent harm done by the sex prejudice of health professionals.

Prescribed steroids are dangerous. Most doctors do not appreciate how dangerous they are.

Read here about the permanent and terrible harm, including death, some people have suffered from taking steroids prescribed by their doctor. And read here about how to lessen that harm if you are a steroid victim trying to cope with living the shattered life that prescribed steroids have left you with. If you are a parent, be aware that steroids are particularly harmful to children.

If steroids HAVE to be taken, make sure they are taken in the lowest effective dose and for the shortest necessary time. And insist on careful monitoring. And check out side-effects, etc on reference pages on the internet. Avoid eating salt or food containing added salt while taking steroid medication. - COMPLETELY.

Today is the start of Salt Awareness Week

World Salt Awareness Week. You can improve your health in countless ways by eating less salt and salty food.

Steroid victims say GPs gave no warning: archived article from 1995

Very occasionally, I come across sad evidence of the long, long years prescribed steroids have been harming patients, and the comprehensive lack of any effective measures being taken to STOP doctors catastrophically harming their patients. I came across one yesterday.

In this archived article from The Herald, Scotland, we read:

"HUNDREDS of Scots suffering from the side-effects of steroids have claimed they were never warned by their GPs about the drug's dangers.

They claim steroids have caused them to endure crippling illnesses like the bone-crumbling disease osteoporosis, as well as angina, diabetes, cataracts, weight gains, and skin disorders."

In 2011, this is still the situation. The medical profession's ignorance/negligence in the matter of prescribing powerful, potentially harmful/dangerous drugs, including steroids, but many other classes of prescribed drugs too - antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-epileptics, and more - is staggering and scandalous.
If you are a steroid victim, or know someone who is a steroid victim, or victim of some other prescribed drug, there is helpful information on these pages:

• Steroids and HRT

• Amitriptyline and other antidepressants

Get rid of Water Weight by becoming a Salt Shunner!

Yes, that's right: shun the salt! If you are carrying a lot of excess water in your body - feeling heavy, fat, bloated, clumsy and uncomfortable because of fluid retention, you can reduce this problem dramatically by avoiding salt and salty food. You are sensitive to salt/sodium. - It's the sodium that is holding the extra water in your body.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Are you distressed about your Red Nose?

You wish your nose was less red and swollen? You wonder why it has become bigger and redder? - Well, a very likely reason for it is that you have become sensitive to salt and so the blood vessels in your nose, along with your other blood vessels, have become swollen because of extra salt and water in your blood stream. You may have already noticed that your face gets redder after you have eaten a salty meal.

The good news is that if you cut down on salt/sodium all of this swelling will be reduced, and your nose, along with the rest of your body, will look less red and swollen. (If you happen to drink a lot of alcohol, it would also help if you reduce alcohol intake, but you doubtless already know that.)
See Sodium in foods and Groups Vulnerable to Salt.

Beware! That pub meal is likely to be very high in salt!

Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) has been surveying the salt content of 526 pie, mash and gravy products from large pub chains, cafes, takeaways and supermarkets, as reported by hc2d.co.uk.

It's good that Consensus Action on Salt and Health keeps drawing attention to continuing high concentrations of salt in prepared meals, but after so many years of attention being drawn to this, retailers who sell meals to the public must know that for the sake of the health of their customers they should be lowering the amount of salt in those meals.

It seems then, that Wetherspoons and Punch Taverns don't care that their high salt meals are damaging their customers' health. It would seem that by making their meals salty, they hope to increase the thirst of the customers who eat them, and therefore to sell more drinks to them to quench that thirst. If you are one of those customers, I suggest you try telling the manager you would prefer the meals to be less salty. Failing that, you may like to consider taking your custom elsewhere for the sake of your health. If you cut down on salt and salty food, you will feel better and have more energy, and you'll lower your risk of stroke, heart attack, diabetes, cancer and dementia, as well as lowering high blood pressure and losing excess weight/fluid retention.

Professor Richard Bentall, psychologist, has trenchant views about psychiatric drugs

Professor Richard Bentall, psychologist, has trenchant views about psychiatric drugs and the harm they do. I heard him on Radio 4's Moral Maze this evening explaining that there are two main groups who profit from antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs - namely the shareholders of the drug companies, and the doctors/psychiatrists who make a living from prescribing the drugs. Good to hear some unambiguous honesty about these toxic drugs, and to have it pointed out by a respected academic that the evidence for their efficacy is all but non-existent. - Three Cheers for Professor Bentall!

And see Richard Bentall interview in which you will read him quoted as saying, " Drug companies are bribing American child psychiatrists with huge research grants to advocate this kind of treatment, and it’s beginning to happen in the UK. I don’t know how else to put it but that people are being bribed to poison children — and accepting the bribe." - I hope that has whetted your appetitite to read the whole article!

Guatemalans sue US government over deliberate syphilis infections by medical scientists in the 1940s

BBC News reports that hundreds of Guatemalans are suing the US government over being deliberately infected with syphilis or gonorrhoea by US medical scientists when they were studying penicillin in the 1940s, a 'crime against humanity' kept secret until a medical historian uncovered hidden records and made them public last year. See my earlier blogpost.

Psoriasis? Some members of the Psoriasis Help Organisation have found reducing salt intake has greatly reduced their problems with Psoriasis

Some members of the Psoriasis Help Organisation have found reducing salt intake has greatly reduced their problems with psoriasis. See Psoriasis Help Organisation forum page about Salt Sensitivity. In fact, cutting down on salt intake improves health in many ways, particularly in lowering high blood pressure and reducing obesity and risk of stroke, heart attack, heart disease, most cancers, breathing problems and type 2 diabetes. Why not try cutting down on salt and salty food for yourself? - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better...(o:

British study finds that breastfed babies have higher IQs than bottlefed

The Telegraph reports study finding that breastfed babies are more intelligent than bottlefed: "there were two schools of thought on how breastfeeding had an effect: that long-chain fatty acids in breast milk helped the brain develop; and that the act of breastfeeding improved the mother-child bond."

I would ascribe much of the benefit babies get from being breastfed to the fact that breast milk is low in sodium, lower in sodium than formula milk. And breast milk is, of course, the food that has evolved over millions of years as that best suited to human babies, especially newborns. Children, and babies in particular, are harmed by too high intake of sodium/salt. See Children and Salt Intake.

So have you given up something for Lent?

Did you give up smoking? - That is excellent.

Did you give up sugar in your tea and coffee? - That's great. - Give up cakes and biscuits as well...(o:

Did you give up eating salt and salty food? - No? - It would improve your health in many ways and you would have more energy to do your work, pursue your interests, help other people... I hope you will consider cutting out, or at any rate, cutting down on, salt and salty food. That mainly means giving up processed food, ready meals and takeaways.

Did you give up dieting? - Unlikely, I guess. - And yet, dieting really isn't good for you. - If you've actually started to diet as a Lenten task, I hope you will consider swapping that resolve, and consider giving up sugar and salt instead. - Doing that swap would achieve the weight loss you wish for, without damaging your health as dieting does.

Holly McNish: I loved her performance poem WOW

I loved Holly McNish's newly composed poem for Woman of the World which I heard her perform on Radio 4's Woman's Hour omnibus edition today. You could listen to it using a link from this page.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the voluntary pledges of industry

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the voluntary pledges of industry, big business and multinationals, are unlikely to improve Public Health by the tiniest fraction of the smallest scrap of the littlest bit of an iota, and are negotiated by Governments, Health Ministers and Departments of Health, as the cynical tribute hypocrisy pays to virtue. Who but shysters would appoint the Food and Drinks Industry as advisers to the Department of Health with the aim of tackling the growing health problem of child obesity?

Asian rice output at risk from overuse of pesticides

The unbridled manufacture and use of pesticides in Asia is raising the spectre of "pest storms" devastating the region's rice farms and threatening food security, scientists have warned.
Read article in The Independent (UK)

PMT Problem? Here's what to do:

To reduce or completely put an end to PMT/PMS/Pre-Menstrual Tension you 'just' need to avoid salt and salty food, because this will cause your body to excrete the excess fluid/water weight that is causing the PMT. Fluid Retention caused by Salt Sensitivity is another way of expressing it. - Read about how to reduce PMT by eating less salt. - I say 'just' eat less salt/sodium, because this is by no means as simple as it sounds, in this modern world in which most of the food on sale in supermarkets is laden with very high concentrations of salt added by the food manufacturers. - Instead of relying on processed food and takeaways, you will need to buy fresh raw food and cook it yourself with little or no added salt. But the great improvement in your health and well-being that this will bring about will prove well worth the effort. - Go on! - Try it and see for yourself!

BBC News reports that England is 'healthier than the US'

BBC News reports that England is 'healthier than the US' and my subjectively selective quote...(o: from the article is: "The researchers say: "Why health status differs so dramatically in these two countries, which share much in terms of history and culture, is an unresolved puzzle."

Well, Stone me! as Tony Hancock might have said if he were still alive. - It's not a puzzle! - It's a no-brainer! - The US takes more junk medication than as yet the Brits do, and the US Food Industry and the US Agribusiness and GM/BioTech bullyboys ensure that Americans largely eat toxic, adulterated, additive-drenched, over-salted, HFCS-loaded, nutrition-lite crap instead of real food. How can the US possibly be healthy when most people's bodies and brains are having to contend with that poisonous combo continually assaulting them?

A happy email I received yesterday from the USA

This is the message the email contained:

"I wanted to let you know that I followed your advice about lowering sodium intake. I'm only about 10 lbs over weight but I had high blood pressure. I take blood pressure medicine but my Dr. wanted to give me a different blood pressure medicine with a diuretic in it. I refused to change to it. I wanted to reduce my blood pressure with out additional medicine and why is it getting higher. I started more exercise and watching what I eat but that was not working. Then I found your web site and started looking at all the foods we eat. My wife and I changed the types of food we eat and do not eat any with high sodium content. We cook more of our own dishes and eat just as good as we want. I try to limit sodium to 1500 mg and in two months time I have reduced my blood pressure by 25 points and feel much better. I can't wait until my next checkup to show the Doctor my results.

I think it is a shame that so much emphasis is placed on Calories, cholesterol and fat content but never a mention of sodium.

Thanks for your research."

If you have high blood pressure, why not try following that advice on my website and you too will find your blood pressure will go down and you will feel much better, like the man who wrote to me.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the Christian season that is customarily a time of reflection, repentance and self-denial. It symbolises the 40 days in which Jesus fasted in the wilderness and was tempted by the Devil. He withstood the three tests and banished the devil with the words, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

It was on Ash Wednesday years ago that the then Bishop of Sheffield, David Lunn, came to see me in my home.

I had been seeking his help in my endeavours to put an end to the appallingly cruel treatment being meted out to some patients at the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital in order to cover up sustained clinical negligence. See the account of my personal experience of this. He had not wanted to help, but had not wanted to admit that he did not want to help. He had made several excuses first. Then at last he had had me to see him at the Bishop's Palace. I was shown into the library there, and waited a little while there, on my own, until he came into the room. I found it a forbidding room, with its daunting collection of commentaries on St Paul. I'd have felt happier with books about Jesus.

He had already checked up on me with Professor Eric Wilkes, whom we both knew and respected: checked that I was a person who told the truth, and Prof had assured him I was. I had told Prof that I was seeking the Bishop's help. At that meeting in his library, I left some further information with him and he later wrote to me arranging the Ash Wednesday visit.

He arrived in his purple bishop's cassock and stayed a long time - I forget how long. He said he would need some of the lords in the House of Lords to help him to deal with the matter. I had asked him to ensure that patients with agonising toothache, needing dental help, would not be told at that dental hospital (or indeed any other) that they were not in pain and were 'just depressed', without properly examining the patients' teeth! and to give the dentists a statutory duty to examine the patients' teeth. Mr Reg Dinsdale, the negligent consultant dentist who did me the most harm, had told me he was not going to 'indulge' me by having necessary X-rays done! (I have written about him in my short story, Long in the Toothache.)

So I set about getting some lords to help the bishop. I was already in contact with the secretary of a society - I think it was called something like The Human Rights Society. I had already helped her to help a guy in the North-East who had been so atrociously treated in his dealings with the NHS and was so sick of being ignored or insulted (but never helped) by the useless NHS Complaints Procedures, and by his MP, that he had gone to London to the Houses of Parliament and had nailed his hand to a door there! to try to get someone to do something about all the NHS cruelty. - He still didn't get any help... - I had talked about him on local radio, and sent him a recording of the interview, and it had lifted his spirits to know that his shocking treatment was at least no longer completely ignored.

I asked that secretary if she could help me. She said the society was only small and not very active, but it had several lords among its membership. She asked these lords if they would help and they said they would, but that the Bishop would have to introduce the matter in the House of Lords and then they would support him in the matter. When the Bishop had left me that Ash Wednesday, he had said to me that in approaching anyone about the matter after that day, I could quote him at any time and in any context (I remember those were his exact words) that he had investigated the matter and knew that I was telling the truth and he would support me in the matter. I asked him to write me a short note to that effect and sign it but he said that that would not be necessary; I could trust him to keep his word.

Excitedly, I wrote to him to tell him that there were these lords happy to support him in the House of Lords. I never heard from him again!

I wrote to him again. He did not reply. I rang him. His newly-appointed secretary had clearly been told by him that I was a nutter, and she spoke to me as though I was half-witted. Neither she nor he answered my letters and he refused to speak to me on the phone. I can only surmise that he had supposed that I would be unable to get any lords to back him up in the House of Lords and so had felt safe in assuming that his promise to speak on the matter would never need to be kept. And he had most shamefully lied to me when he had told me that I could quote him at any time and in any context that he had investigated the matter and knew that I was telling the truth and he would support me in the matter.

GM Foodstuffs should be labelled

Dr Mercola writes that GM Foodstuffs should be labelled, and I agree with him. I'm sure you'll agree too. See his article.

Happy Birthday, Michael Grade, Lord Grade of Yarmouth

Happy Birthday! Michael Grade, Lord Grade of Yarmouth. I read in the Radio Times that it is your 68th birthday today. I also read there that you are two stone (28 pounds) overweight. So I have a birthday present for you: it is the suggestion to cut down on salt and salty food, because this would result in your losing some of that excess weight. - Honestly, it would! - Go on! - Try it! - It will benefit your health in countless other ways too, including reducing your risk of a stroke, which I understand your father suffered.

Do you suffer from Ménière's Disease or Vertigo?

Do you suffer from Ménière's Disease or Vertigo? - If you seriously cut down on salt and food containing added salt you will notice a big improvement. This mainly entails eating fresh food you cook yourself, instead of processed foods, ready meals and takeaways, because these are usually very high in salt. See Foods High and Low in Salt/Sodium. Other health benefits you will experience from eating less salt are that you will lose some excess weight, reduce high blood pressure, have more energy, and feel much better. You will also reduce your risk of stroke, diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart attack, most cancers, dementia and many other degenerative illnesses and conditions.

Antidepressants are more likely to harm you than to make you feel better

The people who benefit from antidepressants are not the patients who take them, but the people who gain financially from the profits of the drug companies who make and sell them. Antidepressants are more likely to harm you than to make you feel better. Antidepressants do not work for depression and seldom help with pain. They are sometimes helpful for insomnia, but most of them cause serious weight gain and many other adverse side-effects and also cause brain damage years later, so they are better avoided.

Dr Mercola has a good article today warning about the dangers of taking antidepressants and about other, non-drug ways to lift depression. I urge you to read it. He does not mention, however, the ways that I most favour, namely avoiding dieting, and cutting down on salt and salty food. Most of the people who email me having followed my advice about eating less salt and salty food, are eager to tell me they have lost weight easily and that they are feeling and looking much better. They also report that their mental acuity has increased markedly so that they can perform mental tasks much more quickly and their work performance is enhanced. There is a positive correlation between being overweight/obese and being depressed, so that is an additional factor to bear in mind: antidepressant drugs are highly likely to cause weight gain, and excess weight is linked to depression. - It's a no-brainer in my opinion!

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Melatonin: I take a 3mg capsule of melatonin near bedtime to help me to sleep

Melatonin: On most days I take a 3mg capsule of melatonin near bedtime. It is a natural human hormone that has many roles, but it is as an aid to sleep that I take it. There are many possible causes for a person not secreting enough melatonin. One of the causes is prescribed medication: e.g. beta-blockers such as propranolol can deplete our bodies of melatonin. So if your sleep has deteriorated and you are puzzled as to what has caused this, it may possibly be a side-effect of tablets you are taking or have taken.

But it may be that, like me, you are in a lot of pain and that pain is keeping you awake. - You may feel pretty desperate at times because of severe lack of sleep. You may be wondering whether sleeping pills would be helpful. - I hope you will decide against that course of action. - If you look on the internet you will find a wealth of research findings about the adverse effects of sleeping tablets, or hypnotics as they are also known. And these side-effects are even more harmful to older people. Sleeping tablets are harmful and dangerous and should be avoided, especially by older people.

Doctors often confuse pain, insomnia and depression, so they sometimes persuade patients, particularly female patients, to take antidepressants when they are in pain. Antidepressants do not work for depression and seldom help with pain. They are sometimes helpful for insomnia, but most of them cause serious weight gain and many other adverse side-effects and also cause brain damage years later, so they are better avoided.

The other medication you may be considering, or have very likely tried, is analgesia/painkillers. And you may, like me, have found that they do not help at all with the pain or with the sleep problem. Or you may, like me, be concerned about the many harmful side-effects from them. And you may, like me, prefer 'natural' help when possible, rather than pharmaceutical products.

Well the natural ways to reduce chronic pain are to avoid salt and salty food, and avoid dieting and calorie-counting. And obesity is linked to poor sleep and to greater sensitivity to pain, so it is helpful to lose excess weight. Eat good, nutritious food, preferably low carb, low sugar and high fat of the good sort, such as from grass-fed cows. See LCHF. Make sure you get enough calcium and vitamin D. - See this Fat Retention page, with further information about calcium and vitamin D.

And one of the ways to help with poor sleep is to take melatonin. I believe it is safer than hypnotics, antidepressants and painkillers. - I'm assuming you have already made sure the bed is as comfortable as possible and that the curtains keep out unnecessary light, etc.

Organ meat is very nutritious and also inexpensive

Organ meat is very nutritious and also inexpensive. My favourite is lamb's liver, which is very easy to cook. - Just pan-fry it lightly. - But my friend, Bill, recently told me about a good way of cooking lamb's heart. This is what he wrote:

"I have a really easy way of cooking.

I made a deep slit in one of the hearts and stuffed in 3 or 4 crushed garlic cloves, sprinkled with ground black pepper and wrapped in tin foil.

Then baked in the oven for one and a half hours at 170 centigrade.

The meat is so tender and full of flavour, and does not need chewing."

When I tried it, I baked it for an extra half-hour because of my constant toothache. It certainly was tender and full of flavour. You may like to try it.

Soil Association lists the latest arguments against GM technology

"As the GM industry continues to peddle the myth that GM crops are needed to ‘feed the world,’ scientific evidence is stacking up showing the importance of agroecological farming systems, such as organic, in tackling hunger in the poorest countries. The current model of GM production and sale is just not appropriate for poor farmers in countries where people continue to suffer from hunger - which are not in Europe or North America, but in continents like Africa and Asia. Research from the UN has shown that the adoption of organic and near-organic farming practices in Africa have doubled yields, improved access to food for both farmers and local communities, and raised incomes through the use of low-cost, locally available technologies and inputs."
Read article on the website of the Soil Association (UK)

Fraudulent drug research involving intravenous fluid management using colloids may have compromised surgery outcomes of millions of patients

The Telegraph reports that fraudulent drug research involving intravenous fluid management using colloids may have compromised surgery outcomes of millions of patients.

Many of my blogposts are about fraud involving drug research. Too many members of the medical profession have what is called 'a conflict of interest'. Put simply, this means that they are receiving payments/bribes/inducements of some kind from a pharmaceutical drug company in order to lie about the efficacy and/or safety of the company's drug/s in order to swell the profits of the company. When criminal court cases result from this fraud and from the massive harm and suffering caused to patients, the usual sanction is a huge fine on the company, but huge though the fines are, they pale into insignificance in comparision to the profits made by the fraudulent research claims, and are regarded as reasonable costs by the drug companies. This is why the fraud continues to flourish and why it is unwise to trust drug research findings.

It is vanishingly rare for any individuals involved in the criminality to suffer punishment personally. But in this case, the anaesthetist involved, Joachim Boldt, is at the centre of a criminal investigation. Let us hope that if found guilty he will receive a punishment of imprisonment appropriate to the suffering and worry his greed has caused to millions of patients, and that it will deter other members of the medical profession from being tempted into research fraud.

Neil Oliver - A History of Ancient Britain: Age of Bronze

This was the fourth and last part of this BBC2 series. (See BBC History). I have the presumption to wish that historian, Neil Oliver, would get his hair cut, but I certainly admire his enthusiasm for his subject.

Tonight we left behind the Stone Age to learn of the Beaker People. Their beakers were made of copper - copper found in threads within Irish stone and extracted using high heat. This metal was fine for making beakers, but not strong enough to use for weapons. Later, Cornish tin was mined, and when combined with copper, became bronze, a metal strong enough to be made into swords.

Dr Oliver traced for us the new culture these metals wrought in Britain - social mobility, international trade, early village life. Whereas in the Stone Age status might have been conferred on the priests because of their religious mysteries, say, the people of the Age of Bronze now had status by way of their fine possessions. The Iron Age still lay ahead.

The programme for me stirred old memories of a poem by Padraic Colum, an Irish poet I admired long ago. I knew the poem as "The Woodworker's Ballad", but maybe that title is incorrect, because I search in vain on the internet for the poem or any lines from it. What I remember is this, but I suspect it contains several errors, as well as being incomplete:

The Woodworker's Ballad

All that is moulded of iron

Has led to destruction and blood,

But the things that are honour'd of Zion

Are most of them made from wood.

King Arthur had a wood table

And Our Lord blessed wood, for you see,

He worked at a wooden table

At His wonderful carpentry.

He was born in a wooden stable

And He died on a wooden tree.

Oh all that is moulded of iron

Has led to destruction and blood,

But the things that are honour'd of Zion

Are most of them made from wood.

Note added 28th April 2011:
I've found the complete poem now. It's a lovely poem. You can find it on this page.

New Warning about children's unhealthily high salt intake

The Telegraph carries a new warning report about children's unhealthy eating, especially with regard to their high salt intake. "High levels of salt in fast food, ready-made pasta, cereals and other meal-time treats aimed at children mean many face a ticking health time bomb, say experts." High salt intake is more dangerous for children because of their smaller size and the comparative immaturity of their organs. Their salt intake should be much lower than that of adults, yet for many children their salt intake is higher than the recommended maximum daily salt intake for adults.

The report covers other undesirable aspects of children's diets too, including the high sugar intake and the low nutritional content of much of the food they eat. Children's high salt intake and generally poor nutrition can significantly contribute to chronic and degenerative diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

My main concern about children's health concerns their high salt intake and its connection to child obesity. You can read my thoughts about it here. And here is my page about salt/sodium in foods.

Desert Island Discs - Dame Anne Owers: I loved this programme

Desert Island Discs - Dame Anne Owers: I loved this programme. I heard it last Sunday. It will be repeated on Radio 4 on Friday March 4th at 9am. or you can listen to it using iPlayer or on a podcast. I have never enjoyed an edition of Desert Island Discs more than this one.

Dame Anne is best known as the the former Chief Inspector of Prisons. Her voice is warm, clear and beautiful. Her eventful life has been rich with happiness and achievement despite the early loss of her much-loved and gifted father, and then losing her mother on the day she married.

I was bowled over by her choice of records because her taste in music is so close to my own. She grew up in a very musical household, with a deep love of choral music and other vocal music, and this was illustrated in her choices. I was particularly moved by her third disc: the unaccompanied voice of June Tabor singing The Band played Waltzing Matilda.